JP7486376B2 - Internet of Things (IoT) Box for Mobile Payment Retail System and In-Store Mobile Charging Solution - Google Patents

Description

This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/884,927, filed August 9, 2019, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

The present disclosure relates generally to handheld electronic devices, and more particularly to electronic devices configured to conduct sales transactions. To this effect, the present invention, in certain embodiments, relates to a portable Internet of Things (IoT)-based self-checkout terminal with improved mobile payment options.

Systems are known that use mobile devices (smartphones, tablets, etc.) for mobile payment at the point of sale. Such techniques include, for example, scanning a barcode with the mobile device from a cash register display, or displaying a numeric code, barcode, or two-dimensional code on the mobile device that is typed or scanned by a cashier, or tapping a mobile device that supports the Near Field Communication (NFC) standard on a terminal that supports the same standard.

These types of systems purport to provide a convenient and fast checkout experience for customers, typically involving self-checkout where a user utilizes a mobile device to collect product identification and pricing information. At the register, the user presents the mobile device to the retailer's legacy scanning system, and a barcode or other graphical information symbol is presented to the scanner, enabling fast checkout. However, to be effective, such systems require mobile devices to have applications ("apps") from the store downloaded onto their devices. Many users are reluctant to download apps for individual stores for a variety of reasons, including inconvenience, and due to privacy concerns.

Moreover, some of the above mentioned systems and solutions require additional customer actions during the purchase and/or checkout process and cannot prevent a customer from walking through the register with undetected unpaid items. Many known systems for verification and checkout of payments when leaving the store require the customer to continue placing their items on the register belt or the like, the customer or the cashier must scan the items, and at least the items must be repacked in a cart, basket, or bag, so that the claimed time advantage is hardly evident in the entire checkout process. Such systems therefore require additional administrative staff and/or complex and cumbersome technical means such as weighing systems. In any case, several manual and time-consuming processes must be performed by the customer for self-checkout. These kinds of systems therefore fail to meet the requirements of more convenient and faster mobile payment techniques that actually provide the claimed advantages of such systems. Alternatively, some known systems are of the "scan and go" type that may eliminate some of the above mentioned drawbacks, but these systems typically perform random verifications on selected (pre-identified) customers and are therefore prone to waste, and are based exclusively on in-store applications downloaded onto the customer's phone, and similar problems have been reported with currently known "autonomous shopping".

Given such inefficiencies, customers and merchants are questioning the benefits of current mobile payment techniques via mobile devices and are demanding more convenient and faster mobile payment techniques.

Therefore, there continues to be a demand to enable true self-checkout using mobile payments, such as cashless and cardless self-checkout using mobile payment services at retail stores, where the customer is not required to take any additional actions during the purchase and/or checkout process.

There is still a demand for enhanced in-store mobile commerce solutions and charging systems. By way of background, it is estimated that approximately 80% of shoppers use their own mobile devices in physical stores. The ability of customers to use their mobile phones while shopping has become so important that, of that 80%, it is estimated that 60% of shoppers experience what is called "battery anxiety" when their mobile device runs out of battery charge. This dramatically shortens customer dwell times in physical stores and has a huge negative impact on in-store purchases as customers typically leave the store too early to recharge their mobile devices elsewhere.

U.S. Patent No. 6,016,022 U.S. Patent No. 6,002,187

Therefore, there is a need to provide an in-store mobile charging solution to prevent battery anxiety and increase in-store purchases. In addition, there is a need to augment such a solution with a fully digital experience that provides in-store customers the ability to search for and locate products on their own mobile device, scan and pay for said products, all from their own mobile device. Such a solution bridges the gap between traditional in-store shopping and a fully automated checkout solution.

One embodiment of the present disclosure generally relates to a system and technique for performing point of sale (POS) transactions using a portable device (box) in an Internet of Things (IoT) type system that obviates the above-mentioned drawbacks. More specifically, the present invention relates to a handheld portable point of purchase device (herein referred to as IoT box) having a method that includes an automated shopping app launch module for automatically starting and displaying on the electronic display of the IoT box a given store app that can interface with a user's mobile device to enable self-checkout using various mobile payment methods, all without the need to download a given store app to the user's mobile device. In providing this, the present invention is a portable IoT box-centric system that can be based on existing Bluetooth® or Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacon architecture and, in an exemplary embodiment, enables cashless payments (and in any embodiment cardless payments) across completely different electronic payment methods (AliPay®, ApplePay®, Samsung Pay®, Google Pay®, etc.) without the need to download a store-specific app and without the need for a fixed scanner at the checkout station. The IoT Box has the flexibility to allow point of sale (POS) applications from different electronic payment systems to run on the customer's mobile device as a typical configuration, or on the IoT Box itself as an alternative configuration. Either way, no additional store-specific apps are required to be downloaded to the customer's mobile device (although such downloads can be compatible if desired) so that all of the user's preferences can be accommodated thereby.

According to one disclosed embodiment, a portable electronic device may be capable of completing an entire sales transaction, including registering items, receiving payment information, and communicating with an external server to receive authorization for the payment. The electronic device may include input devices such as a near field communication (NFC) interface, a camera, and a scanner to retrieve item and payment information. The electronic device may also use a device identification networking protocol to establish a communication link with another device to receive the payment information. A software application on the device, or more typically on the customer's mobile device, may calculate the payment amount and retrieve inventory and price information from the merchant's server.

The electronic device may also include one or more communication interfaces at the physical checkout lane for communicating with a merchant's server when relaying confirmation of checkout and confirmation of payment for the item, which in one embodiment includes a Quick Response (QR) code or barcode that serves as confirmation of payment that can be automatically electronically read at the physical checkout lane. Further aspects may provide automatic verification at the physical checkout lane of items being transported through the physical checkout lane.

In a further embodiment of the present invention, systems and techniques for providing a handheld portable charging point device that can overcome the above-mentioned "battery anxiety" and the resulting loss of in-store sales by such affected customers. At its broadest level, the handheld portable charging point device has a universal casement structure and a mobile device holding structure for securely gripping a user's mobile device, includes a rechargeable battery and a recharging interface for charging the user's mobile device, and when the rechargeable battery of the handheld portable charging point device needs recharging, the handheld portable charging point device can be parked in a power outlet, wired or wireless electronic contacts, or a lockable or anti-theft alarm sensor-compatible charging interface or charging station. An optional electronic display is attached when combined with a payment interface (such as a scanner, a physical credit card processing interface, or a displayed virtual payment interface) for the purposes of locking/unlocking the device, for app use, and/or for direct purchase with or without a kiosk and cash register. As a further enhancement, the charging interface may optionally include circuitry for variable speed (slow, fast) charging options and additional features such as biosensors and antimicrobial features. Further embodiments may provide an optional "green charging" option that utilizes the motion of an attached shopping cart in which the handheld portable charging point device is placed to charge the device's rechargeable battery and/or to directly charge the user's mobile device when held by it.

The specific aspects of the embodiments disclosed herein as examples herein are presented merely to provide the reader with a brief summary of certain forms that the inventions disclosed and/or claimed herein may take, and these aspects are not intended to limit the scope of any inventions disclosed and/or claimed herein. Moreover, any invention disclosed and/or claimed herein may encompass various aspects that may not be described below. Various refinements and additional features of the above-mentioned features may also be incorporated and may exist individually or in any combination thereof.

These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the present disclosure will become better understood when the following detailed description is read in conjunction with the accompanying non-limiting drawings, in which like characters represent like parts throughout.

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of the core of an electronic device of a self-checkout system according to the present invention ("IoT Box for Mobile Payment"). FIG. 13 illustrates an example of an optional cradle that may be used to accept and frictionally hold an IoT Box for an exemplary mobile payment. FIG. 13 illustrates an example of an optional charging station that may be used to house an IoT Box for exemplary mobile payment when not in use by a customer. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing an example of an electronic architecture within an IoT box for mobile payment. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of an optional BLE beacon that may be used by an exemplary mobile payment IoT box when communicating within a store IoT environment. FIG. 13 illustrates an example of an optional self-checkout station that can enhance the exemplary IoT Box for Mobile Payments by providing a checkout lane that can verify both the payment and the items transported through the lane in an automated and electronic manner. FIG. 13 illustrates an example of an optional self-checkout station that can enhance the exemplary IoT Box for Mobile Payments by providing a checkout lane that can verify both the payment and the items transported through the lane in an automated and electronic manner. FIG. 1 illustrates the first central step in the overall self-checkout procedure according to an embodiment of the present invention, which relieves the user from the need to download a store app on their own mobile device when using the payment system. FIG. 13 illustrates the overall flow process for pairing between a user and an IoT Box device (or referred to as a handheld portable charge point device in one additional embodiment), depending on which one initiates the pairing process. FIG. 13 illustrates the overall flow process for pairing between a user and an IoT Box device (or referred to as a handheld portable charge point device in one additional embodiment), depending on which one initiates the pairing process. FIG. 13 illustrates the overall flow process for pairing between a user and an IoT Box device (or referred to as a handheld portable charge point device in one additional embodiment), depending on which one initiates the pairing process. FIG. 13 illustrates the overall flow process for pairing between a user and an IoT Box device (or referred to as a handheld portable charge point device in one additional embodiment), depending on which one initiates the pairing process. FIG. 1 is an exemplary diagram of a mobile device in-store charging system of the present invention, including an exemplary charger, charging station, and interface with a user mobile device in one type of situational use. FIG. 1 is an exemplary diagram of a mobile device in-store charging system of the present invention, including an exemplary charger, charging station, and interface with a user mobile device in one type of situational use. FIG. 1 is an exemplary diagram of a mobile device in-store charging system of the present invention, including an exemplary charger, charging station, and interface with a user mobile device in one type of situational use.

In the drawings, the lines/arrows interconnecting individual blocks or entities are generally intended to indicate an operable connection between them, which may be a physical and/or logical connection, which, on the one hand, is generally implementation independent (e.g., wired or wireless), it being noted that, on the other hand, it may also include any number of intermediate functional blocks or entities not shown.

The present invention is described herein with reference to certain non-limiting examples and what are currently considered to be possible embodiments of the present invention. Those skilled in the art will understand that the present invention is in no way limited to these examples and may be more broadly applicable. Hereinafter, various example embodiments and implementations of the present invention and its aspects are described using several modifications and/or alternatives. It is broadly noted that, depending on specific needs and constraints, all of the modifications and/or alternatives described may be provided alone or in any conceivable combination (including combinations of individual features of the various modifications and/or alternatives). In this specification, the words "comprise" and "include" should be understood as not limiting the example embodiments and implementations described to consist only of the mentioned features, and such example embodiments and implementations may also include features, structures, units, modules, etc. that are not specifically mentioned.

In accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, generally speaking, systems and methods are provided for enabling self-checkout using mobile payment, such as self-checkout using cashless and cardless payment. Such payment transactions do not require cash and/or a debit card, credit card, etc., to purchase items at a point of sale at a retail store, although those methods of payment are alternatively provided herein. Exemplary electronic payment transactions may be processed by mobile payment systems such as Google Pay®, AliPay®, ApplePay®, etc. In doing so, the present invention provides for enabling true self-checkout using mobile payment where the customer is not required to take any additional actions during the purchase and/or checkout process, including eliminating the need to download a store app to the mobile device being used.

Figure 1 shows a schematic diagram illustrating one illustrative example of an IoT box 100 that is the core of the entire self-checkout system according to the present invention. As shown in Figure 1, at its simplest level, it is a generic enclosure structure that may be box-like (or other shape) containing a scanner 102, a display 104, an optional mobile phone/device docking station 106 with optional wireless (inductive) or wired charging 108 as shown, an optional NFC module 110, an optional speaker 112, an optional GPS 114, and an optional charging pin 116. As used herein, the enclosure structure is generic, that is, the structure may itself assume various practical forms as understood by those skilled in the art, which may in one embodiment involve various shaped structures large enough to hold the desired basic components such as a rechargeable battery, a charging and/or recharging interface, any communication module, and/or an electronic display, as well as a mobile device docking station or holding structure.

Although not shown, the electronic device may also include one or more communication interfaces for communicating with a merchant's server via a wireless network, a personal area network, a near field communication channel, etc. In certain embodiments, the electronic device may use a smart selection method to determine the most suitable communication interface based on data transmission speed, security features, and other user preferences. The electronic device may also include applications that perform various personalized and location-based services, such as product location information, product information, and merchant rewards programs.

FIG. 2 shows a schematic diagram showing one illustrative example of an IoT Box Cradle 150 that may be used to receive and frictionally or otherwise hold the IoT Box 100 on a shopping cart or the like. As can be appreciated, the exact form of the IoT Box Cradle 150 can vary widely and is any embodiment made for easy mounting and holding of the IoT Box 100 when a customer decides to use the device by removing it from a rack or charging station 190 shown in FIG. 3 that typically houses the device before and after use.

4 shows a schematic diagram illustrating an example of an electronic architecture in an IoT box for mobile payment, where the operation of the device 100 may be controlled by a central processing unit (CPU) 450 and control circuitry (not shown) that provides the processing power required to execute the operating system, programs, display 104, and any other functions of the device 100. The CPU 450 may include a single processor, or the CPU 450 may include multiple processors. For example, the CPU 450 may include a "general purpose" microprocessor, a combination of general purpose and special purpose microprocessors, an instruction set processor, a graphics processor, a video processor, and/or associated chipsets, although in one embodiment a special purpose microprocessor is provided. The control circuitry may include one or more data buses for transferring data and instructions between the components of the device 100. The control circuitry may also include on-board memory for caching purposes. In certain embodiments, the storage may include image processing programs for extracting textual or coded information from images. For example, the image processing programs may be used to extract credit card information from a photo of a credit card. In another example, the image processing programs may be used to identify an item from a store's database using a photo of the item. Long-term storage may be non-volatile memory, such as read-only memory, flash memory, hard drives, or any other suitable optical, magnetic, or solid-state computer-readable medium, and combinations thereof.

One or more communication modules (interfaces) may provide connectivity channels for receiving and transmitting information. These modules may include wired and wireless (Bluetooth, BLE, NFC, etc.) connectivity. In one way, i.e., NFC, it may be used to pair the IoT Box 100 with a customer's mobile device, as a prompt to automatically launch the respective store app on the display 104, and for other communication needs. Near-field communication may occur through a Near Field Communication (NFC) module in the IoT Box 100. The NFC module may work in conjunction with an NFC interface of a nearby device, such as a mobile device, to enable those near-field communications. The NFC module may exist as a separate component, may be integrated into another chipset, or may be integrated with the NFC device, for example, as part of a system-on-chip (SoC). The NFC interface may include one or more protocols, such as Near Field Communication Interface and Protocol (NFCIP-1), for communicating with another NFC-enabled device. The protocol can be used to adapt communication speeds and designate one of the connected devices as the initiator device that controls the short-range wireless communication.

An important feature of the hardware details described above is a dedicated circuit located in the IoT Box 100 and connected to the CPU 450 and the communication module described above, such that the automated shopping app launch module can automatically start and display (on the electronic display 104 of the IoT Box 100) a given store app that can interface with the customer's mobile device. This dedicated circuit is configured to receive a special signal generated by pairing the IoT Box 100 with the customer's mobile device, which triggers a routine to pull updated app information from the store's server or the like via the communication module described above. This, when combined with communication with the customer's mobile device, allows for automatic app launch that eliminates the need to have the given app downloaded to the customer's mobile device, thereby enabling self-checkout without the need for a "store app download".

An input/output (I/O) controller (not shown) may provide an infrastructure for communicating data between the control circuitry and input/output devices such as the display 104, scanner 102, etc. The I/O controller may include one or more integrated circuits and may be integrated within the control circuitry or may exist as a separate component. The I/O controller also provides an infrastructure for communicating with external devices through I/O ports (not shown) and may be used to connect the device 100 to an external computer, etc.

The IoT box 100 may include a power source, such as a Li-Ion battery, which may be user removable or fixed to the housing. In certain embodiments, a proprietary connection pogo pin (or alternatively, USB or other wired cable as well as inductive charging methods) may be used to connect the device 100 to a power source at the charging station 190 to recharge the battery.

Figure 5 shows a schematic diagram illustrating an example of an optional BLE beacon with a dedicated BLE chip and attached antenna that may be used by an exemplary IoT box for mobile payment when communicating within a store IoT environment.

6A and 6B show examples of fixed and mobile self-checkout stations, respectively, that may enhance the exemplary IoT Box for Mobile Payment by providing a checkout lane that can validate both the payment and the items being carried through the lane in an automated and electronic manner. In doing so, the display 104 may have a list of the exact items that are relevant for the validation of the payment. As seen in FIG. 6A, at least one RFID reader combined with multiple directionally distributed cameras that use known machine learning techniques for item recognition performs a validation check of the items moving through the lane. Similarly, these cameras are used to read the validation of the payment, which in one embodiment may be a QR, barcode, or numeric code displayed on the display 104. This provides an automatic electronic payment and validation of the items that eliminates the need to remove the items as required by known systems or to position the user's cell phone immediately adjacent to the kiosk's NFC or the like for the payment interface. Unlike systems that use cameras (often combined with machine learning or AI techniques) to track customers and the products they can pick up (and have unacceptably high rates of product-related errors and mispricing/quantity valuations), this approach for cameras is directed to verifying what is known as the final purchase and quantity, in one embodiment. Similarly, FIG. 6B incorporates the features described above, but further provides cart rails and the like that may provide different angles of interface (as well as potentially more and/or different arrays of sensors in addition to cameras) when compared to the fixed configuration described above in FIG. 6A. In either case, various sensors, such as ultrasonic sensors, may also be used in one further embodiment.

Figure 7 shows a schematic representation of the first central step in the entire self-checkout procedure according to an embodiment of the present invention, which relieves the user from the need to download a store app on his own mobile device when using the payment system. By using the IoT box as an intermediate agent that launches the store app, the IoT box completely eliminates the need for reluctant users to download the store app. Obviously, if the user wants to download the app, the system provided herein can recognize it and also provide for the fulfillment of the purchase as described. As can be seen particularly in FIG. 7, there are at least four variations on the above, namely, (i) a shopper places their personal mobile device in the phone/device docking station 106, the NFC tag is read, thereby launching the store app on the display 104 (705); (ii) a shopper reads the QR code (registered trademark, the same below) on the IoT box 100, which then opens the store app on the display 104 (710); (iii) the IoT box 100 listens to the store's BLE beacon, which then launches the store app on the display 104 (715); and/or (iv) a shopper plugs in a charging cable 108 (which can also double as a communications conduit between the two devices), thereby launching the store app on the display 104 (720).

However, before the user is freed from the need to download the store app on his/her mobile device, it is first necessary to pair the mobile device and the IoT Box with each other, illustratively by Bluetooth or BLE. There are two ways to do the pairing: the IoT Box can initiate the pairing or the user can initiate the pairing. When the communication module of the IoT Box 100 completes the pairing process with the user mobile device, upon receiving a pairing completion signal from the communication module, a code generator (not shown) appears to generate a code representing the unique identification information of the user mobile device. Upon receiving either the code and/or the pairing completion signal, an automated shopping app launch module automatically starts launching and displaying a given store app. In either case, the IoT Box 100 generates a code (illustratively a random number) to provide device information for pairing in a privacy-preserving manner, which provides the further advantage of ease of use, given that this step is automated within the IoT Box 100 and does not require user involvement (other than allowing the user mobile device to accept the pairing offer by the IoT Box 100). In each case, with reference to FIGS. 8A and 8B, an exemplary pairing step may therefore include:
Method 1 - The IoT Box device 100 initiates pairing including the steps of (1) the IoT Box 100 displaying a QR code having a randomly generated number on the display 104, (2) the user reading this QR code on the display 104 of the IoT Box 100 with the smartphone camera, (3) the customer's smartphone starting advertising using the random number, (4) the IoT Box 100 requesting pairing using the random number, and (5) the customer's smartphone accepting the pairing request from the KOAMTAC IoT Box and both are ready to connect to each other.
or
Method 2--The user smartphone initiates pairing including the steps of (1) the user downloads an automatic pairing program from the store, (2) the user launches an application to display a QR code having a random number, (3) the user reads this QR code by a barcode scanner 102 that electronically communicates with the IoT Box 100, (3) the IoT Box 100 starts advertising using the random number, (4) the customer's smartphone requests pairing using the random number, and (5) the IoT Box 100 accepts the pairing request from the user smartphone and both are ready to connect to each other.

Thus, the overall service flow might look like this: (1) A user visits a store. (2) The user takes the IoT Box 100 and places it in a shopping cart, preferably utilizing a cradle 150 that has a locking mechanism to hold the IoT Box 100 in the cart. (3) The user pairs the smartphone with the IoT Box using various methods as described above, or in alternative embodiments, either (a) a physical connection, such as by plugging a cable on the IoT Box 100 into the mobile device, or (b) a wireless connection, either by enabling Bluetooth on the mobile device, or by scanning a barcode on the IoT Box 100, or by reading an NFC tag on the IoT Box 100. (4) The user can optionally lock the mobile device to the IoT Box in the cradle of the shopping cart, either using a shopping application or by conventional locking methods such as a PIN pad, fingerprint authentication, and physical lock. (5) The user or alternatively the IoT box 100 automatically launches the shopping application via technology such as (a) the Apple® Made for iPhone (MFI®) protocol enables automatic launch of the store's shopping application upon insertion of an Apple connector such as an 8-pin Lightning connector, (b) an NFC tag on the IoT box automatically launches the store's shopping website, (c) a store's WiFi connection automatically launches the store's shopping website, (d) scanning a barcode of the store's shopping site URL, which in turn launches the store's shopping website, (e) a connection using a BLE beacon such as Android Eddystone®, which in turn can call up the shopping website. (6) The user initiates a purchase step by scanning a product barcode with a mobile phone (or alternatively the scanner 102) to prepare for the payment/self-checkout step, and it is noted that various shopping assistant services are referred to as shopping assistant features in one embodiment, and the shopping assistant features may be integrated with BLE beacon technology to provide services such as custom product information, personalized discount coupons, store navigation maps, and user location measurement. (7) A payment and self-checkout step that may include tallying up all of the scanned items from the previous step, processing the payment (whether by making a payment from a shopping application using a registered credit card, or by making a payment using a payment application such as Alipay (a non-credit card based electronic payment system), or by making a payment using a credit card or other credit card based electronic payment tools such as Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, etc. if the IoT Box 100 is equipped with any credit card payment unit), displaying a payment barcode on the display 104 of the IoT Box 100, the IoT Box 100 detecting the self-checkout booth or the self-checkout booth's sensors such as a camera or an RFID reader detecting the IoT Box and sending the shopping list to the store's server, the self-checkout booth preferably equipped with a camera and/or RFID technology verifying the validity of the purchased items in the shopping cart, and finally, the user exiting the self-checkout booth, returning the IoT Box 100 to the charging station 190, and finishing their shopping.

When conducting a sales transaction using the IoT Box 100 as described above, the price of the item is typically encoded in a bar code or ultra-high frequency (UHF) tag located on the item. However, in other embodiments, the electronic device IoT Box 100 may use the received identification information to query price information. For example, the IoT Box 100 may transmit a SKU number to an external device, such as a server, to obtain price information associated with that SKU number. Using the received identification information, the IoT Box 100 may determine a payment amount, which may be transmitted to the user's mobile device or may be retained in the absence of a connected user mobile device. The IoT Box 100 may also receive payment information through communication via the store's server (not shown), which may include information for processing a payment for the item. For example, the payment information may include credit card information swiped or inserted (chip read) by the IoT credit card unit (if available, which may otherwise be provided separately to the kiosk in connection with the system) or by registering a payment code (e.g., QR) generated by the electronic payment system used (e.g., Google Pay®, AliPay®, ApplePay®, etc.). Upon receiving the authorization code or message, the IoT box 100 may display a notification message on the display 104 alerting the merchant (which in one embodiment is automatically scanned, such as by a fixed camera at the cash register's exit lane) that the payment has been processed. In certain circumstances, an item may not be properly cashed out by scanning. For example, a UHF tag or barcode may be damaged and unreadable. In these circumstances, a graphical element may be used to display a keyboard for manually entering item identification information. Keys or buttons representing numbers and letters may be used to enter identification information regarding the item. In certain embodiments, information displayed on the barcode or UHF tag may be entered by a virtual keypad. In other embodiments, the keypad may be used to enter the name or model number of the item, especially if the user does not have a cell phone. In any case, it is understood that radio frequency identification (RFID) tags are not completely accurate, so in one embodiment, RFID validation is used in conjunction with the bar code scan described above, and may be further enhanced by additional sensors for accuracy purposes.

Furthermore, the IoT box 100 as part of the above-mentioned shopping assistant in one embodiment may use a fixed device number that can be used by any of the BLE beacons of the store's IoT system (not shown) (in cooperation with the back-end store's server) when determining the signal strength of the IoT box to measure the shopper's proximity after pairing. This number may be used with mobile pairing as a user token to indicate the customer's presence in the store and to assign the user to a transaction requested by the cash register system, and as an identifier for product location services, or even in conjunction with a user-operated device such as a Microsoft Kinect. At least one BLE beacon included in the IoT box 100 continues to broadcast location information to the store's beacons, etc., providing the store's server with the location of each customer. The store's server can then in turn provide the above-mentioned customized shopping assistant information to the customer's mobile device or alternatively to the display 104 of the IoT box 100. In doing so, various beacon standards such as Apple iBeacon® and Google EddyStone® may be used with BLE Angle of Arrival (AoA) and Angle of Departure (AoD) information together with RSSI information to increase the accuracy of the customer's location. In this regard, when the mobile device reaches a predefined proximity area of the cash register system, e.g., the inner edge of the proximity beam of the cash register system, the detector's sensor may scan a product identification tag, such as an RFID tag, attached to the user's shopping item, and the store's server device may verify the payment for the ongoing shopping transaction, so that the scanned shopping item may be paid by the mobile payment service, i.e., by the mobile payment service user/customer and the store's respective account. Furthermore, the user/customer may receive a receipt for the shopping transaction either immediately after the payment process, or, especially in the absence of wireless connectivity with the server, e.g., after leaving the store's premises, at a point after wireless connectivity with the server is restored. The cash register system may open a physical doorway/gate to stop the user/customer from blocking the lane so that they can exit the store after the payment process.

According to one exemplary embodiment of the present invention, encryption may be provided by IoT Box 100. According to that embodiment, any data transmission between any entities of the system described herein may or may not use encryption. Such encryption may be applied using conventional encryption standards such as the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) and point-to-point tunneling protocols such as Microsoft PPTP.

8A-8D detail an exemplary user usage flow for additional embodiments of the overall inventive system concept. At a high level, as shown in FIG. 8A, one user-initiated process begins when the user walks into a store or other commercial establishment (802), optionally proceeds to procure a shopping cart with an attachment to receive a charger, proceeds to a charger wall (806), and the user can take the handheld portable charging point device 902 (or alternatively the IoT box 100 of the above-mentioned embodiment) by unlocking the handheld portable charging point device 902 from the recharging receptacle 904 of the charging station where the recharging receptacle 904 has been charging the handheld portable charging point device 902 through an interface such as a wall outlet, wireless charging, and/or wired electronic contacts. Any promotions 810 are activated, and then the item is scanned (812) for checkout 814. The process is completed by the customer locking (816) the handheld portable charging point device 902 before leaving the store (818). An anti-theft proximity sensor may be incorporated so that the handheld portable charging point device 902 is not inadvertently or maliciously removed from the store. A similar process detailed above may be implemented for customers who already have the store app (as determined at 820 in FIG. 8B), with the subsequent process of FIG. 8C evidenced in steps 822-828 and then processed for an existing app user to scan a barcode (842) to unlock 844 the handheld portable charging point device 902, and further process seen in FIG. 8D for initiating the charger at 852.

In a further exemplary embodiment, the mobile phone docking station 106, or the user mobile device recharging interface 914 of the handheld portable charging point device 902, includes circuitry (not shown) for variable speed charging options that may enable at least two or more faster vs. slower charging configurations depending on the user's identity and/or actions. For example, a VIP user, or perhaps a user who has simply opted in to download a preferred app to their mobile device, may be identified and allowed to use (one of) the fast charging option rather than the slower charging option. The ability to allow charging options specified by the rights owner may thus be driven by the service logic according to such desired preferences, and the internal circuitry may be pre-programmed with code to accomplish that. In effect, a logic gate switches the session usage flow through one of two (or more) faster or slower charging paths. Illustratively, the structure of the circuitry used in providing the faster vs. slower charging options is as follows in an exemplary USB wired charging embodiment: (1) A slower charging option--using the basic USB specification, which delivers just 0.5 amps (A) of current using 5 volts (V) at just 2.5 watts (W). (2) A faster charging option--using a USB Power Delivery option that operates at 7.5+W or even 15+W, but this can vary depending on the implementation of similar schemes such as Qualcomm, Inc.'s Quick Charge, Huawei, Inc.'s Super Charge, Oppo, Inc.'s VOOC, Motorola, Inc.'s Turbo Power, OnePlus Inc.'s Warp Charge, etc. Within the exemplary variable speed charging framework described above, other wired and wireless (inductive) charging schemes are explicitly contemplated and can be readily deployed within the overall novel system, as one skilled in the art can appreciate.

9A-9C, the exemplary handheld portable charging point device 902 may be charged through a charging interface 904 (shown in FIG. 9A as a charging station that can host or park the handheld portable charging point device 902) in various ways described in other embodiments herein or as shown herein. The handheld portable charging point device 902 may include a screen 910, a mobile device holding structure 912 for holding or holding a user mobile device 920, a rechargeable battery (not shown) mounted or contained within a generic housing structure, and a user mobile device recharging interface 914, which may be wireless (electromagnetic induction) or wired, and may optionally double as a communication conduit between the two devices. As seen in FIG. 9C, a payment interface 932 may further be provided, which may be one or more of a physical credit card processing interface (shown here with an exemplary credit card 934) and/or a virtual payment interface displayed on the electronic display 910 or the user mobile device 920.

While the "universal" aspects of the enclosure structure have been discussed elsewhere herein, one further feature of certain embodiments is the ability to make the enclosure truly portable by having an elongated profile with overall dimensions such that the enclosure structure can be grasped by various shapes of human hands (as shown in FIG. 9A) and at the same time has a quick-fixing "snap-on" feature such that the enclosure structure can be easily snapped onto a mechanical structure such as a unique in-store basket or cart 930 as shown in FIG. 9B. Unique features that today's shoppers may find attractive may also be optionally provided within the "universal" novelty. For example, attached to or integrated into the universal enclosure structure, various types of biosensors may be provided for convenient use by shoppers for health monitoring while shopping. For example, such biosensors may include fitness monitors, glucose and oxygen monitoring, body temperature, etc., which are already commercially available, but which may be adapted to and intended for use with the handheld portable charging point device 902. Also, because many modern shoppers are concerned about germ-bearing store surfaces (such as shopping cart handles, which are often disinfected using store-provided antibacterial wipes), the plastic forming the general-purpose outer shell may be provided with antibacterial properties that inhibit microbial growth, such as by impregnation with silver ions or other additives, as would be known in the art.

One further embodiment may provide an optional "green charging" system that utilizes the motion of an attached shopping cart 930 on which the handheld portable charging point device 902 is placed to charge the rechargeable battery of the handheld portable charging point device 902 and/or to directly charge the user mobile device 920 when the user mobile device 920 is held by it. At its broadest level, the "green charging" feature utilizes the motion of the wheels (not shown) of the shopping cart 930 as it is pushed by the shopper to generate and obtain electricity that can be sent via the cart's charging wires (not shown) to the rechargeable battery of the handheld portable charging point device 902 and/or the user mobile device 920. Shoppers interested in energy saving and "green" devices may be interested in utilizing this optional embodiment if offered by a given store. To do so, the user can select this option either by a mechanical switch (not shown) or by a "virtual switch" app that instructs the handheld portable charge point device 902 to bypass or alternatively augment the rechargeable battery therein so that electricity generated from environmentally friendly charging can be directed to this recharging mechanism.

As a further structural illustration, the eco-friendly charging system may be electrically connected to the handheld portable charging point device 902 and utilize a piezoelectric, magnetic field based, or other type of power generating device to physically generate electricity through the rotational motion of the wheels of the shopping cart 930. By way of illustration, U.S. Patent No. 6,016,022, entitled "Electricity Generating System for Bicycle," filed on January 18, 2000 by Cho, and U.S. Patent No. 6,002,187, entitled "Bicycle Electricity Generator and a Method of Attaching the Electricity Generator to a Bicycle," filed on December 14, 1999 by Ohkura, both detail obtaining electricity generated by the rotation of wheels. The present invention is not intended to be limited to any of the technologies described by these current documents, and both of these patents are expressly incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

The foregoing description of examples, including illustrated examples of the disclosed subject matter, is presented for purposes of illustration and description only and is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the subject matter to the precise forms disclosed. Numerous modifications, adaptations, and uses thereof may become apparent to those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of this subject matter. The foregoing illustrative examples are provided to introduce the reader to the general subject matter discussed herein and are not intended to limit the scope of the disclosed concepts.

100 IoT Boxes
102 Scanner
104 Display
106 Mobile Phone/Device Docking Station,
108 Charging, charging cable
110 NFC Module
112 Speaker
114 GPS
116 Charging pin
150 IoT Box Cradle
190 Charging Station
450 Central Processing Unit (CPU)
705 Process
710 Process
715 Process
720 Process
902 Handheld Portable Charging Point Device
904 Recharging Receptacle
910 Screen, Electronic Display
912 Mobile device holding structure
914 User Mobile Device Recharging Interface
920 User Mobile Devices
930 In-store basket or cart
932 Payment Interface
934 Credit Card

Claims (7)

(a) A versatile outer shell structure;
(b) a scanner attached to the universal housing structure; and
(c) an electronic display;
(d) a communications module, the communications module comprising:
(i) a Near Field Communication (NFC) device configured to sense a connection with an adjacent NFC-enabled item and to obtain identification information from one or more NFC-tagged items;
(ii) a Bluetooth® Low Energy (BLE) interface configured to sense for connections with neighboring BLE beacons;
(iii) a wireless connectivity module configured to connect via WiFi, Bluetooth, or a cellular connection; or
(iv) a communication module having at least one of the wired connections;
(e) a code generator for generating a code for the user mobile device upon receiving a pairing complete signal from the communication module when the communication module completes a pairing process with the user mobile device;
(f) an automated shopping app launch module for automatically initiating a given store app upon receiving said code and thereafter displaying said store app on said electronic display and for interfacing with said user mobile device via said communications module. (g) a processor in electronic communication with the scanner, the electronic display, and the communication module, the processor comprising:
(i) transmitting product identification information and payment information to a remote external server and a connected mobile device, and receiving the product identification information and the payment information from the remote external server and the connected mobile device;
(ii) a processor configured to retrieve electronic trading information for a given market and display said electronic trading information on said electronic display;
(h) a payment module coupled to the communications module, the payment module comprising:
(i) receiving transaction information from an external device based on the product identification information; and transmitting the transaction information to the external device;
(ii) receiving authorization for a transaction based on the transaction information;
and (iii) a payment module configured to display authorization of the transaction on the display. The device of claim 2, wherein the external device is selected from the group including a manual payment kiosk, a user mobile phone, or a server. The device of claim 3, wherein the housing structure includes a cell phone docking station including at least one of a cell phone holder, a wireless charging station, or a wired charging station. The device of claim 4, wherein the communications module includes a shopper location module, the shopper location module including circuitry for performing at least one of performing beacon triangulation, performing WiFi triangulation location measurement, determining location based on beacon RSSI signals including angle of entry (AoA) and angle of departure (AoD) information, or performing Global Positioning System (GPS) triangulation location measurement. The device,
(a) a cart and payment validation station;
(b) a proximity system in electronic communication with the cart and the payment validation station, the proximity system comprising:
(i) electronically connecting to mobile devices of users of a mobile payment service in the vicinity of said device and communicating with said mobile devices upon detecting proximity of each other, said users of said mobile devices being customers;
(ii) electronically recognizing the customer's shopping items while in proximity to a cart and a payment validation station and generating shopping information including at least one of the contents of the shopping basket and a total value of the recognized shopping items;
and (iii) validating payment information via at least one of the mobile device or the display. 7. The device of claim 6, wherein the cell phone docking station includes circuitry for variable speed charging options .

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